JAN 


sec 


ORATION, 


DELIVERED  ON 


THE   FORTY-EIGHTH    ANNIVERSARY 


THE    ORPHAN   HOUSE 


IN  CHARLESTON,  S.  C. 


OCTOBER  ISth,  1837. 


v^ 


BY  REV.  TeOITIAS  SIWYTH. 


PUBLISHED    BY   REQUEST   OF   THE   COMMISSIONERS. 


CHARLESTON : 

PRINTED    BY    J.    S.    SURGES, 

No.  85  East  Bay. 

1837. 


ORATION. 


Halle  is  a  large  town  of  Prussian  Saxony,  situated  on  both 
sides  of  the  river  Saale-  It  contains  twenty-four  thousand 
inhabitants  and  many  objects  of  attraction.  Among  these 
are  its  cathedral,  the  tower  of  w^hich  is  higher  than  two  hun- 
dred and  sixty-eight  feet,  and  its  famous  university,  which  is 
even  yet  attended  by  six  hundred  students,  and  has  sent  forth 
some  of  the  most  eminent  German  Scholars. 

But  the  celebrity  of  Halle  depends  on  a  different  cause. 
The  traveller  who  enters  this  town,  as  he  casts  his  eyes  around, 
is  attracted  by  a  large  pile  of  buildings  sufficient  to  fill  both 
sides  of  a  court  eight  hundred  feet  long.  On  inquiry  he  is  in- 
formed that  this  is  the  Orphan  House,  and  that  it  was  built  by 
one  who  had  himself,  by  the  early  loss  of  his  father,  known 
what  it  was  to  be  left  an  orphan  in  a  friendless  world. 

The  Rev.  Augustus  Herman  Francke  was  a  man  remark- 
able for  his  piety  and  benevolence.  When  he  came  to  live  in 
Halle  as  a  Professor  in  its  university,  it  was  customary  for 
the  poor  to  go  round  on  certain  days  and  receive  from  the  in- 
habitants whatever  assistance  they  might  be  disposed  to  ren- 
der. Francke  was  struck,  not  only  with  their  poverty  and 
squalid  wretchedness,  but  much  more  by  their  moral  degra- 
dation. Though  himselt  poor,  he  determined  out  of  his  pov- 
erty, to  make  an  effort  to  befriend  them  by  taking  charge  of 
some  children  and  having  them  educated.  Being  encourao-ed 
and  assisted  in  this  attempt  he  finally  resolved,  in  dependence 
upon  that  charity  which  God  might  awaken  in  answer  to  his 
prayers,  to  attempt  the  erection  of  a  large  building,  where 
these  orphan  children  might  be  received,  provided  for,  and  in- 
structed.    By  a  series  of  the  most  wonderful  and  almost  in- 


credible  interpositions  of  divine  providence,  he  completed  that 
establishment  which  has  perpetuated  his  fame,  given  celebri- 
ty to  the  town,  and  rendered  incalculable  benefit  to  the  coun- 
try and  the  world.  His  birth-day  is  still  yearly  celebrated  at 
the  institution,  which  commands  the  undiminished  interest  of 
the  inhabitants. 

In  the  year  1727,  w^hen  Francke  died,  there  were  in  all  the 
schools  connected  with  this  establishment  two  thousand  and 
two  hundred  pupils.  One  hundred  and  thirty-four  of  these 
were  orphans  who  hved  in  the  Orphan  House,  and  who  with 
one  hundred  and  sixty  other  children  and  two  hundred  and 
fifty  indigent  students,  daily  ate  at  the  pubhc  tables  of  the 
establishment  without  charge. 

Connected  with  the  institution,  Francke  had  erected  seve- 
ral departments  in  which  children  intended  for  any  kind  of 
business  received  an  appropriate  education.  In  the  year  one 
thousand  six  hundred  and  ninety-eight,  an  apothecary's  shop 
was  opened,  and  simple  and  popular  medicines  manufactur- 
ed, which  brought  in  at  one  time  an  income  of  not  less  than 
thirty-six  thousand  rix  dollars.  Another  department  is  the 
book  store,  the  printing  for  which  is  done  in  the  establish- 
ment, which  has  become  one  of  the  most  extensive  in  Ger- 
many, and  a  source  of  considerable  revenue.  The  Orphan 
House  possesses  also  a  library  of  twenty  thousand  volumes; 
a  museum  of  natural  science — and  a  chemical  laboratory. 
In  this  institution  also  is  located  the  celebrated  Canstein  Bi- 
ble estabhshment,  whose  object  it  is  to  send  abroad  through 
Europe  the  word  of  God  by  printing  it  so  cheaply  that  all  may 
purchase.  From  this  society  have  been  issued  two  millions  of 
Bibles  and  one  million  of  New  Testaments.  Since  the  com- 
mencement of  the  institution,  four  thousand  five  hundred  or- 
phans alone,  of  whom  three  fourths  were  boys,  have  been 
here  educated. 

This  vast  estabhshment,  which  has  for  a  long  time  entirely 
supported  itself,  although  it  still  receives  benefactions,  took 
its  rise  from  three  dollars  and  a  half,  which  was  given  to 
Francke,  and  from  the  invincible  faith,  energy  and  persever- 
ance of  this  one  man.  "Better  to  have  such  an  eulogy  as  is 
contained  in  the  history  of  this  Orphan  House,  than  to  be  the 


conqueror  of  the  world.  Better  to  be  embalmed  as  Francke, 
in  the  grateful  recollections  of  thousands,  than  to  sleep  under 
the  proudest  monument  that  has  ever  covered  the  remains  of 
earthly  greatness."  Well  may  the  benevolent  traveller  turn 
avi^ay  from  the  curious  monuments  of  St.  Ulric,  the  Town 
House  with  its  relic  of  the  Imperial  Constitution,  the  neigh- 
boring mines  and  manufactories,  and  feast  his  soul  on  this  mi- 
racle of  charity,  this  wonderful  achievement  of  Christian  faith. 

And  perhaps,  my  fellow-citizens,  you  will  not  think  the  brief 
account  which  1  have  given  of  an  institution  renowned 
throughout  the  world,  an  uninteresting  or  unappropriate  in- 
troduction to  the  address  to  be  dehvered  on  this  Anniversary 
of  your  Orphan  Asylum.  The  perfection  of  this  institution 
being  your  great  desire,  some  hints  towards  this  consumma- 
tion may  be  derived  from  the  course  pursued  in  one  so  emi- 
nently successful.  The  spirit  of  an  honorable  emulation  may 
well  be  awakened,  and  the  talents  of  some  consecrated,  per- 
haps, to  this  glorious  undertaking. 

1  was  led  to  these  reflections  by  the  correspondence  of  the 
emotions  excited  ia  a  recent  traveller  on  his  visit  to  Halle,  and 
my  own  when  I  firs^  came  to  this  city.  My  attention  was 
soon  attracted  to  yonder  building,  large  and  yet  simple,  in 
good  and  careful  repair,  evincing  attention  and  interest  and  a 
high  estimate  of  its  importance,  with  its  spacious  grounds  and 
gardens,  throwing  around  it  the  smihng  aspect  of  pleasure 
and  comfort,  rather  than  of  confinement — and  with  its  modest 
spire  and  chapel  pointing  heavenward,  informing  me  that  it 
was  consecrated  to  the  genius  of  piety  and  prospered  under 
the  fostering  care  of  heaven.  It  was  unnecessary  to  inquire 
into  its  nature,  for  it  bore  enstamped  upon  it  the  image  of 
charity,  while  its  lettered  front  told  me  that  this  was  the 
home  of  the  Southern  Orphan.  And  does  it  not  speak  to  the 
stranger's  heart,  whose  father  or  mother  or  both  may  lie  slum- 
bering under  the  sod  of  some  distant  island  in  the  far  off 
ocean,  with  a  sweeter  and  more  touching  voice  than  any  or 
all  the  other  buildings  which  may  adorn  your  city?  'Well,' 
said  I,  'a  man  may  come  here  a  foreigner  and  an  alien,  he 
may  be  unknown,  he  may  contend  with  the  fierceness  and 
treachery  of  disease,  and  he  may  fall  in  the  midst  of  his  hopes 


a  victim — but  his  children  have  found  a  home.  They  will  not 
be  outcasts.  Kind  voices  will  address  them,  and  kind  hands 
lead  them;  and  here  they  will  be  nurtured  in  the  lap  of  care, 
of  knowledge,  and  of  religion.  Glory  be  to  him  who  is  known 
as  Abbe  Yetomim,  ,the  father  of  orphans,  who  has  led  to  the 
erection  of  such  an  Asylum." 

Fifty  years  ago,  and  no  such  retreat  for  the  homeless  chil- 
dren of  penury  was  found  in  this  city.  Then  might  they  be 
seen  clad  only  in  the  livery  of  misfortune,  wandering  about 
the  streets,  seeking  a  support  from  casual  charity,  or  cast  up- 
on the  bounty  of  some  good  Samaritan,  who  might  be  touch- 
ed with  their  distresses.  For  them  no  cheerful  fireside  pre- 
pared the  accustomed  seat.  No  parent's  voice  conveyed  to 
them  the  lessons  of  admonition.  No  restraining  authority 
kept  them  back  from  the  paths  of  destruction  and  the  snares 
of  vice.  They  became  accustomed  to  crimes  before  they 
knew  that  they  were  evil,  exhibiting  childhood  without  child- 
hood's innocence.  They  grew  up  as  weeds  in  the  garden  of 
society,  spreading  around  them  their  pestiferous  influence. 
Without  character,  with  no  interest  in  the  public  happiness,  re- 
garding themselves  as  outcasts  from  all  the  advantages,  they 
spurned  at  the  restraints  of  law,  and  thus  became  enemies  of 
the  peace  and  burdens  upon  the  prosperity  of  the  community. 
Then  might  be  seen  the  poor  widow  with  her  numerous 
offspring,  possessing  the  name  without  the  power  or  the  re- 
sources of  a  guardian,  left  by  her  husband's  death  in  an  un- 
provided home,  with  no  habit  of  personal  exertion,  no  ability 
to  meet  the  harsh  selfishness  of  the  world,  and  no  knowledge 
of  any  means  whereby  she  might  procure  subsistence  for  her- 
self or  family. 

Death!  thou  art  always  terrible!  Thick  darkness  rests  upon 
the  grave!  And  fearful  are  the  terrors  which  encompass  the 
dreary  valley  of  death!  Trying  is  even  the  temporary  sepa- 
ration of  loved  companions,  but  when  by  the  ruthless  hand 
of  death  it  is  made  final  and  unchangeable,  oh!  is  it  not  in- 
deed dreadful?  But  when  this  calamity  comes  down  like  an 
avalanche  upon  some  family,  dependent  for  their  daily  bread 
upon  their  daily  labor;  when  it  overwhelms  in  its  ruins,  the 
head  of  such  an  infant  community;  when  it  carries  blight  over 


every  coming  prospect,  and  scaths  every  present  means  of 
comfort  and  enjoyment;  there  is  added  to  those  pangs  which 
rend  the  heart  of  true  affection,  the  hopelessness  of  a  dark 
and  dreary  future  in  a  pitiless  world.  To  be  bereft  of  a  fond 
husband  or  of  an  affectionate  father,  even  when  he  leaves  his 
widow  well  provided  for,  and  his  children  comfortable,  is  to 
enter  the  depth  of  human  wretchedness;  but  to  be  deprived 
then  of  this  only  remaining  stay  against  the  floods  of  earthly 
sorrow;  to  have  this  only  light  shut  out  from  their  darkness, 
is  to  be  sunk  into  a  deeper  depth  of  unutterable  misery.  Who 
that  has  not  experienced  such  misfortune  can  conceive  or  de- 
scribe it,  can  enter  into  those  waiUngs  of  despairing  sorrow, 
which  become  the  natural  language  of  the  helpless  widow, 
or  those  shrieks  of  terror  which  instinctively  break  forth  from 
the  fatherless  and  portionless  orphan? 

Such,  however,  were  the  scenes  then  witnessed,  and  not 
unfrequently  in  this  city,  and  such  the  sorrow  which  was  then 
endured  in  this  Christian  community.  How  many  and  how 
aggravated  they  were,  those  ministering  spirits  can  alone  say, 
who  hoovered  over  these  habitations  of  calamity,  not  as  in  the 
hour  of  Egypt's  doom,  that  they  might  destroy,  but  that  they 
might  bind  up  the  broken  heart,  and  pour  the  oil  of  consola- 
tion into  the  bleeding  wound. 

It  was  about  the  year  1786,  that  the  City  Council  of  Charles- 
ton requested  a  gentleman  to  present  before  them  a  plan  of 
the  Orphan  House  in  Georgia,  erected  through  the  exertions 
of  the  celebrated  Whitefield.  The  subject  was  not  acted  up- 
on until  three  years  after,  when  owing  to  the  zeal  and  perse- 
verance of  Mr.  John  Robertson,  then  a  member  of  Council, 
an  ordinance  was  passed  for  the  erection  of  a  similiar  institu- 
tion, under  the  care  and  protection  of  the  city.  This  was  on 
the  18th  of  Oct.  1790,  forty  seven  years  ago.  And  here  let 
me  say,  for  the  encouragement  of  all,  who  are  disposed  to 
engage  in  plans  of  usefulness,  that  the  individual  we  have 
named  was  of  comparatively  humble  standing  in  the  com- 
munity, and  indebted  for  his  success  in  this  business,  wholly 
to  his  spirit  of  persevering  benevolence.  A  temporary  house 
was  obtained  for  the  accommodation  of  the  children,  and  on 
the  12th  of  Nov.  1792,  was  laid  the  foundation  of  the  present 
Orphan  House. 


8 

Charleston  has  been  often  aroused  to  deep  and  universal 
excitement — when,  invested  by  the  enemies  of  her  country, 
she  awaited  victory  or  destruction — when  the  fierce  hurricane 
swept  over  her  in  devastation — when  the  flames  seemed  com- 
missioned to  lay  waste  and  utterly  destroy — but  never  per- 
haps was  she  filled  with  such  an  universal  spirit  of  sympathy, 
and  so  animated  as  it  were  by  one  soul — as  when  she  poured 
out  her  population  in  solemn  and  joyful  procession,  accom- 
panied with  the  stirring  sounds  of  pealing  music,  to  witness 
this  event.  Proud  and  glorious  triumph  of  the  spirit  of  Chris- 
tianity— the  spirit  of  charity — when  a  whole  community  were 
seen  assembled  in  the  presence  of  the  God  of  the  Bible,  that 
they  might  publicly  proclaim  to  the  houseless  orphan,  "Be- 
hold your  home;"  to  the  friendless,  "Behold  in  us  your  friends;" 
to  the  fatherless,  "Behold  in  us  your  father." 

In  the  year  1794,  on  this  day,  the  18th  of  October,  the  same 
community  were  seen  again  assembled  to  receive  into  the  bo- 
som of  yonder  asylum,  their  collected  orphans,  and  year  by 
year  have  they  come  together  on  this  memorable  day,  that 
they  might  sing  the  praises  of  charity,  rejoice  over  their 
adopted  family,  and  give  thanks  to  the  author  of  all  mercy 
and  the  giver  of  every  good  and  perfect  gift. 

We  have  said  that  in  the  erection  of  this  Institution,  and  in 
the  circumstances  connected  with  it,  there  was  a  noble  tri- 
bute to  the  power  of  Christianity,  and  the  goodness  of  its  all 
merciful  author.  Before  proceeding  to  the  further  considera- 
tion of  this  institution,  let  us  dwell  a  little  upon  this  point. 
For  it  is  a  first  principle  of  duty,  to  render  unto  God  the  things 
that  are  God's  and  essential  to  acceptance  with  him,  that  in 
all  our  ways  we  should  acknowledge  him,  giving  unto  him 
the  glory  that  is  his  due. 

M.  Constant  has  beautifully  said  that  Christianity  is  the 
epoch  of  pity.  Heathen  philosophers  considered  children  as 
beneath  their  notice  or  attention — the  God  of  the  Bible  alone 
is  not  ashamed  to  be  called  their  Father,  and  in  the  person  of 
his  Son,  to  take  them  up  in  his  arms  and  bless  them.  Com- 
passionate regard  to  the  poor  or  destitute  or  helpless,  formed 
no  part  of  the  teachings  of  the  Pagan  philosophy.  You  might 
have  traversed,  as  has  been  said,  the  Roman  empire  in  the 
zenith  of  its  power  from  the  Euphrates  to  the  Atlantic,  with- 


out  meeting  with  a  single  charitable  asylum,  for  the  widow 
the  orphan,  or  the  diseased.  Monuments  of  pride,  of  ambi- 
tion, of  vindictive  wrath,  were  to  be  found  in  abundance,  but 
not  one  legible  record  of  pity  for  the  poor.*  Not  only  so, 
children  were  abused  and  made  subservient  to  every  foolish 
and  hurtful  superstition.  "It  is  a  common  practice,"  says 
Justin  in  his  apology,  to  the  Roman  Emperor,  "to  expose  in- 
fants in  your  empire;  and  there  are  persons  who  afterwards 
bring  up  these  infants  for  the  business  of  prostitution. — 
Throughout  all  the  nations  subject  to  you,  we  meet  with  none 
but  children  destined  for  the  most  execrable  purposes,  who 
are  kept  hke  herds  of  beasts,  and  upon  whom  you  levy  a  tri- 
bute." This  was  in  perfect  accordance  with  their  treatment 
throughout  the  heathen  world,  in  past  and  present  times.  The 
custom  of  exposing  infants,  or  sacrificing  them,  especially 
orphans,  prevailed  among  the  Egyptians,  Latins,  Greeks,  Ro- 
mans, and  other  ancient  nations.  The  Caribees  were  accus- 
tomed to  salt  and  eat  their  children.!  In  New  Spain,  chil- 
dren were  put  to  death  on  the  first  appearance  of  green  corn, 
when  it  was  a  foot  high,  and  when  it  had  grown  two  feet.^ 
The  Aboriginal  inhabitants  of  Virginia  sacrificed  children  to 
the  devil.  In  Mexico,  five  or  six  thousand  children  were  an- 
nually sacrificed  to  the  numerous  Idols,  while  as  many  as  ten 
thousand  are  supposed  to  be  now  annually  exposed  to  death 
in  the  capital  of  China.  The  Japanese  are  instructed  by  their 
religion  that  the  sick  and  needy,  including  orphans,  are  odious, 
and  devoted  to  the  gods,  and  they  are  accordingly  sacrificed 
or  left  to  perish.  Before  the  time  of  Mahomet,  the  Arabs  re- 
fused to  widows  and  orphans  any  share  in  the  property  of  their 
deceased  husbands  and  fathers.  The  alteration  which  he 
made  in  this  law  he  derived  from  his  acquaintance  with  the 
gospel. 

The  condition  of  the  poor  and  needy  was  incomparably 
bettered  by  the  Jewish  dispensation.  It  is  declared  that 
among  the  Jews  according  to  their  laws,  orphans  should  be 
considered  by  them  as  their  brethren;  that  each  family  should 

*  See  Homer's   touching  descriptioiv  of  the  pitable  condition   to  which  by  the 
death  of  Hector,  his  son  Astyanax  was  brought.     II.  22. 1,  620.  &,c. 
t  See  Ryan  on  Eff.  of  Relig.  p.  273.  t  Ryan,  p.  273. 

2 


10 

adopt  one;  and  that  the  child  thus  adopted,  should  eat  at  the 
table,  share  m  the  substance,  and  be  treated  as  a  member  of 
the  family.  God  was  known  in  Israel,  as  a  father  of  the  fa- 
therless, and  a  judge  of  the  widow.*  These  regulations  and 
this  spirit  of  kindness  were  however  practically  too  much 
disregarded.  The  ignorant,  the  unfortunate,  and  the  wretch- 
ed, were  by  the  Pharisaic  dogmas  considered  as  accursed,  as 
under  the  frown  of  heaven,  and  as  undeserving  of  pity. 
Schoetgenius  has  quoted  this  expression  from  one  of  their 
books — plebeius  non  est  pius,  the  poor  man  is  not  a  pious 
man. 

It  is  true  there  may  be  found  in  Heathen  philosophy  and 
more  abundantly  in  Jewish  writers,  many  rich  and  glowing 
sentiments  of  charity.  But  these  sentiments  perished  in  their 
birth;  they  were  uttered  not  to  be  acted  upon  but  admired. 
Stoicism  or  hardened  selfishness  was  the  medium  through 
which  misery  was  contemplated,  and  through  which  it  ap- 
peared stript  of  all  its  gloominess,  as  a  mere  necessity  of  na- 
ture, which  like  the  storm  or  the  hurricane,  beat  upon  hearts 
insensible  to  its  fury  or  self-sustained. 

The  lamp  that  has  led  us  to  this  true  and  noblo  charity  was 
lighted  at  the  altar  of  Christianity,  and  there  is  not  existent 
and  probably  never  has  been,  an  asylum  for  the  father- 
less and  friendless  orphan  beyond  the  influence  of  this  divine 
faith.  Houses  have  been  erected  as  in  India  for  feeding  sa- 
cred vermin — as  in  Egypt  for  the  protection  and  worship  of 
cats  and  cattle — and  temples  erected  in  abundance  where 
children  might  be  immolated  and  youth  consecrated  to  prosti-* 
tution  and  vice — but  under  the  whole  reign  of  Paganism,  as 
its  own  genuine  offspring,  there  has  not  sprung  up  one  refuge 
for  the 

Poor  orphan  in  the  wide  world  scattered,' 

As  budding  branch  wrenched  from  the  native  tree, 

And  thrown  forth  till  it  be  withered.* 

Christianity  is  the  religion  of  charity.  It  adopts  as  pecu- 
liarly its  own,  the  poor  and  miserable  and  wretched,  and  blind 
and  naked.  It  feeds  the  hungry,  clothes  the  naked,  protects 
the  stranger,  delivers  the  captive,  and  receives  the  orphan  un- 

*  See  Dent,  and  Pa.  t  Spencer. 


u 

der  its  divine  paternity.  The  birth  of  Christ  is  one  of  those 
appropriate  representations  which  are  hung  up  in  the  en- 
trance of  those  institutions  where  "children  dwell  who  know 
no  parent's  care."  Did  He  not  take  them  in  his  arms  and 
bless  them,  saying,  of  such  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven?  Is  it 
not  the  will  of  our  Heavenly  Father  that  not  one  of  these  little 
ones  should  perish?  He  that  receiveth  one  of  these  little  ones' 
is  he  not  regarded  as  receiving  Christ,  and  his  charity  as  giv- 
en to  Christ?  It  is  no  longer  necessary  to  ask  in  despair, 
"What  country  hath  the  poor  to  claim?"  Christianity  shall 
answer,  "God's  foundlings  then  are  ye."  It  is  the  voice  of 
Christianity  which  is  heard  addressing  us  as  she  points  to 
these  young  and  tender  orphans — "Honor  these  children. 
Welcome  them  to  your  embrace,  rejoicing  that  as  the  ap- 
pointed guardians  of  heaven,  they  are  entrusted  in  this  comr 
mencement  of  an  endless  being  to  your  nurture  and  admoni- 
tion. Honor  these  children."  I  will  not,  says  the  Saviour, 
leave  you  orphans.  How  expressive!  I  will  not  leave  you 
in  that  condition  which  orphans  find  themselves  in  these  eas- 
tern countries,  where  they  are  regarded  as  slaves  and  obliged 
to  serve  their  protectors.*  The  Athenians  indeed  adopted 
for  the  public  the  children  of  those  who  died  fighting  for  their 
country,  educated  them  until  twenty-one,  and  then  giving 
them  a  suit  of  armour  enlisted  them  in  their  armies; — but 
Christianity,  in  the  munificence  of  her  charity,  throws  her 
protecting  arm  around  them  all  and  claims  for  them  all  the 
kind  protection  of  the  good,  and  extends  for  the  acceptance 
of  them  all  adoption  into  the  family  of  heaven. 

What  was  the  first  origin  of  distinct  institutions  for  the  or- 
phan we  cannot  trace.  They  are  referred  to  in  the  praise  of 
Constantine  who  was  very  liberal  towards  them,  and  who 
enacted  edicts  commanding  the  public  to  maintain  those  chil- 
dren unable  to  provide  for  themselves.!  Orphans  were  early 
regarded  in  the  canons  and  laws  of  the  Church  and  of  Chris- 
tian countries.  Such  houses  were  common  in  the  West,  A. 
D.  808.  Canute  is  celebrated  for  his  attention  to  orphans,  and 
many  Queens  and  Princes  thought  themselves  distinguished 

*  Calmet  Diet.  Tom.  3.  p.  365.  Lond.  Edit. 

t  Suiceri  Thes.  Tom.  2.     Also  Blackstonu'a  Com't.  vol.  1.  p.  95  Chittv's  Ed. 


12 

by  the  foundation  of  a  foundling  hospital.  When  Spencer 
brings  his  wounded  knight  to  the  house  of  holiness,  we  are 
told  that  of  those  who  came  to  wait  upon  the  needy  appli- 
cants, 

The  seventh  now  after  death  and  burial  done, 
Had  charge  the  tender  orphans  of  the  dead. 

There  are  very  probably  three  thousand  towns  out  of  many 
thousand  in  Christendom,  in  which  there  are  orphan  asylums. 
These  will  contain  on  an  average  one  hundred  children,  thus 
making  the  number  of  orphan  children  at  present  under  the 
care  and  protection  of  Christians,  three  hundred  thousand. 
Far  greater  would  be  the  result  were  we  to  compute  the  num- 
ber of  hospitals  and  their  inmates,  colleges  and  their  students, 
penitentiaries  and  their  refugees,  and  which  are  all  the  pro- 
ductions of  this  tree  of  righteousness  which  bears  twelve  man- 
ner of  fruits,  and  whose  leaves  are  for  the  healing  of  nations. 
Blessed  are  our  eyes  which  witness  her  heavenly  beneficence! 
Blessed  are  our  ears  which  hear  her  joyful  sounds!  Blessed 
are  our  hearts  which  are  made  the  fountains  of  her  hfe  giving 
influence!* 

Having  thus  traced  this  charity  to  its  source,  and  presented 
our  thaksgivings  unto  its  beneficent  author,  let  us  turn  our  at- 
tention to  the  charity  itself.  It  would  appear  unaccountably 
strange  that  an  Institution  so  simple  in  itself,  in  its  object  so 
constantly  obtruded  upon  public  notice,  so  accordant  to  the 
beneficent  feelings  of  the  heart,  and  at  the  same  time  so 
fraught  with  manifold  advantages  to  the  community  in  which 
it  exists,  should  not  have  suggested  itself  in  every  age  and 
country.  Nor  can  any  other  solution  of  this  singular  fact  be 
given  than  that  contained  in  the  word  of  God,  the  all  absorb- 
ing selfishness  of  the  human  heart,  when  not  renewed  by  the 
spirit  of  divine  love.  We  are  thus  also  practically  taught 
that  the  religion  of  the  Bible  is  promotive  of  human  happi- 
ness, not  more  when  it  forbids  indulgence  in  what  is  evil, 
than  when  it  enjoins  the  zealous  and  self-denying  pursuit  of 
what  is  good. 

Were  this  Institution  not  based  on  the  deep  foundations  of 

*  See  a  touching  illustration  of  this  in  an  account  of  the  Missionary  Orphan  Asy- 
lum in  India,  and  the  orphan  girls  found  in  the  streets  starving. 

Missionary  Register,  June  1836,  p.  283.     There  is  another  in  Calcutta. 


13 

charity,  it  would  commend  itself  to  our  sense  of  justice.  Or- 
phans by  being  deprived  of  their  natural  parents  become  the 
children  of  the  community.  What  more  becoming  than  that 
it  should  act  a  parent's  part?  If  he  who  provideth  not  for  his 
own  family  is  worse  than  an  infidel;  if  on  the  contrary,  he 
who  watches  over  the  interests  of  his  offspring  presents  a 
spectacle  so  lovely 'as  to  afford  a  representation  of  the  be- 
nignity of  heaven;  how  much  more  imperative  is  the  obliga- 
tion and  how  much  more  beautiful  is  the  spectacle,  of  a  com* 
munity  covering  with  her  protecting  wings  the  tender  brood 
of  orphans!  The  laws  require  that  in  their  minority,  heirs 
should  be  protected  by  others.  There  is  an  equal  necessity 
that  the  youth  of  those  who  are  left  heirs  to  the  poverty  and 
wretchedness  of  life  should  be  shielded  from  present  danger, 
and  prepared  for  future  action.  But  as  in  this  case  there  is  no 
remuneration,  law  has  left  them  unprovided  for,  and  charity 
must  take  them  up. 

Were  the  claims  of  the  orphan  not  thus  demonstrably  a 
debt  of  love,  and  founded  on  a  sense  of  justice,  the  necessity 
of  such  a  provision  for  these  destitute  children,  would  urge  it 
upon  us.  They  are  cast  upon  the  community,  and  cannot  be 
removed  except  by  a  practice  as  inhuman  as  it  is  sinful. 
Their  support  must  be  drawn  from  the  bosom  of  society  in 
some  way.  They  constitute  a  necessary,  irremovable  tax. 
And  the  question  simply  is,  in  what  form  shall  this  tax  be 
paid?  voluntarily,  as  a  gift,  by  which  the  recipients  may  be 
laid  under  the  obligations  of  gratitude — remedially,  as  a  pre- 
ventive of  future  ignorance,  vice  and  crime — or  involuntarily 
when  it  becomes  necessary  for  punishment  and  self  preserva- 
tion? We  must  pay  this  tax  through  the  Orphan  House,  and 
the  labours  of  early  disciphne  and  instruction,  or  through  the 
Poor  House,  the  Penitentiary,  and  the  Hospital.  If  then  by 
an  equal  expenditure,  or  less,  we  can  secure  good  citizens, 
instead  of  such  as  will  be  injurious  and  burdensome,  self-inter- 
est, nay  selfishness  itself,  will  plead  for  its  adoption. 

But  it  is  not  on  these  grounds  we  would  rest  the  claims,  or 
establish  the  merits  of  this  institution.  It  is  just  and  necessa- 
ry that  it  should  exist,  it  is  much  more  noble,  patriotic,  be- 
nevolent and  Christian.    To  have  a  proper  estimate  of  the 


14 

greatness  of  this  charity,  consider  the  extent  of  that  misery 
which  it  reheves,  the  absolute  destitution,  the  abandoned 
hopelessness  of  those  who  are  its  objects,  cast  from  the  wreck- 
ed vessel  of  their  childhood's  home,  and  left  struggling  in  their 
helplessness,  amid  the  waves  of  life's  ocean  "into  tempest 
wrought."  Consider  too,  the  extensive  benefits  which  it  conr 
fers.  It  finds  these  children  orphans,  it  provides  them  with 
guardians;  they  are  without  covering,  it  decently  clothes 
them;  they  are  destitute  of  food,  it  daily  nourishes  them;  they 
are  hable  to  all  the  pains  and  sickness  of  our  mortal  state,  here 
is  a  physician,  there  is  a  balm  in  this  Gilead;*  ignorant,  they 
are  here  enlightened  in  that  knowledge  which  will  fit  them 
for  entering  successfully  upon  the  competition  of  life;  destined 
to  immortality,  they  are  here  instructed 

"To  think  that  early  he  must  think  at  last." 

Their  physical,  moral,  and  intellectual  well-being  is  thus  ad- 
vanced. They  grow  in  stature,  they  increase  in  knowledge, 
and  they  should  grow  in  favor  with  their  God.  Nor  are  these 
advantages  limited  to  the  period  of  their  domestication  in  the 
institution;  it  is  extended  to  them  when  they  make  their  pe- 
rilous entrance  upon  the  world  beyond.  They  are  followed 
by  the  eye  of  guardianship  and  kind  attention  into  the  rough 
paths  of  life,  that  their  asperities  may  be  smoothed  as  far  as  is 
possible  in  this  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death.  Nor  is  this  all. 
As  the  gifts  of  God  are  imparted  without  any  respect  to  rank 
or  person,  the  steel  is  applied  to  the  flint,  that  if  there  are  any 
1  atent  sparks  of  genius  they  may  be  elicited,  and  the  charac- 
ter and  value  of  the  stone  determined.  When  nature  thus 
discovers  under  the  rough  and  unpromising  appearance  of 
outward  poverty,  some  hidden  gem  or  pearl  of  great  price, 
it  is  not  abandoned,  but  is  at  once  put  into  the  hands  of  the 
artist,  that  it  may  be  wrought  into  beauty  and  give  forth  its 
splendour.  And  have  not  some  of  the  proudest  ornaments  of 
society,  stars  of  the  first  magnitude  in  the  constellation  of 
earthly  glory,  risen  upon  the  view,  from  the  dark  night  of 
poverty  and  wretchedness? 

*  And  here  let  me  pay  a  just  tribute  to  the  care  and  attention  of  the  attending 
Physician,  in  view  of  the  remarkable  health  enjoyed  by  the  children  during  the 
past  year. 


15 

Consider  again  as  characteristic  of  the  greatness  of  this 
charity,  the  permanence  of  its  results.  In  thus  blessing  chil- 
dren it  blesses  men,  for 

Childhood  shows  the  man, 
As  morning  shows  the  day. 

In  thus  elevating  their  character,  it  is  exalting  the  reputa- 
tion of  the^coming  age,  for  here  it  is  emerging  into  hfe  through 
their  life.  If  these  are  suffered  to  pass  through  childhood 
unimproved,  they  will  arrive  at  manhood  in  the  full  maturity 
of  guilt  ?nd  hardy  villainy.  And  not  only  so,,  before  you  are 
the  future  parents  of  a  remote  posterity,  extending  from  them 
in  ever  widening  branches.  What  do  I  say?  Before  you  are 
the  future  legislators  of  their  country,  who  will  perpetuate 
her  liberties  or  betray  them.  In  this  country,  in  the  munifi- 
cence of  a  liberality  only  equalled  by  its  liberty,  you  have  ex- 
tended to  all  her  citizens,  the  equal  privilege  of  controlling 
her  high  destinies.  This  universal  boon  will  be  wise, — it  will 
not  be  certainly  and  necessarily  destructive  of  all  liberty — 
only  by  rendering  all  worthy  of  the  privilege  and  capable  of 
the  duty.  The  monstrous  chasm  which  in  other  nations  sep- 
arates the  higher  from  the  lower  classes  has  been  here  filled 
up,  and  all  may  walk  abroad  in  the  conscious  dignity  of  be- 
ing equal  among  equals  in  point  of  civil  privilege.  But  for- 
get not,  oh  my  country — let  it  be  engraven  upon  thy  councils 
as  if  written  by  the  finger  of  heaven — that  the  humbler  clas- 
ses, and  not  the  highest,  constitute  the  broad  basis  of  the 
pyramid  of  society,  and  that  security  exists  only  so  long  as 
it  is  preserved  in  soundness,  that  is  virtuous  and  wise.  Even 
here — in  these  orphan  children,  there  are  entrusted  to  you, 
to  mould  and  fashion  as  you  will,  a  Spartan  band,  which  if 
imbued  with  the  spirit  of  piety  and  its  kindred  spirit,  true  lib- 
erty, may  yet  throw  themselves  into  some  future  Thermo- 
pylae, and  preserve  the  hberties  of  their  country.  "These 
are  your  ramparts.'' 

Oh  my  adopted  country!  while  fear  and  doubt  harrass  and 

perplex  me,  as  I  look  out  upon  the  clouds  and  thick  darkness 

which  settle  over  thee,  may  I  offer  for  thee  this  prayer — May 

thy  youth  be  numerous  as  the  drops  of  the  morning  dew,  and 

!*.►  f .  ^filleci  like  them  with  the  pure  light  of  heaven.     May  they  re- 


16 

fresh  and  strengthen  that  Ubery  which  has  been  sown  in 
blood,  and  watered  in  tears,  and  reflect  thy  glory  in  increas- 
ing lustre  to  every  nation  and  to  every  age. 

How  serviceable  to  the  public  is  this  charity!  It  binds  to- 
gether the  rich  and  the  poor.  Here  they  meet  each  other 
and  embrace,  acknowledging  their  common  humanity  and 
equal  citizenship.  By  this  giving  and  receiving,  this  protect- 
ing and  being  protected,  they  are  cemented  by  an  inseparable 
union  of  peace  and  good  will.  Thus  have  we  seen  the  earth 
send  up  its  vapors  to  the  heavens,  gathering  around  them  in 
all  the  glory  and  splendor  of  an  evening  sky — and  those 
heavens  again  returning  them  to  the  earth  in  showers  and 
dew,  which  make  glad  and  fructify  the  face  of  nature. 

While  we'  thus  contemplate  the  future  blessings  of  this 
charity,  let  us  not  forget  its  present  and  immediate  good.  It 
is  before  you.  Look  upon  these  children.  While  many  per- 
chance this  day  are  shedding  orphans'  tears,  they  are  filled 
with  all  the  sportive  joy  of  life's  young  dawn.  Look  upon 
these  children.  Are  they  not  yours?  Without  parents  you 
have  taught  them  to  feel  the  throbbings  of  filial  love  and  filial 
piety.  Snatched  from  the  lion  jaw  of  stern  necessity,  they 
have  received  beauty  for  ashes,  the  oil  of  joy  for  mourning, 
and  the  garment  of  praise  for  the  spirit  of  heaviness.  By 
thoroughly,  virtuously  and  religiously  educating  these  child- 
ren, you  will  bestow  upon  them  a  guide  and  a  comforter 
through  life — you  will  prepare  them  to  guide  and  comfort 
others;  you  will  fit  them  for  a  better  performnnce  of  what- 
ever duty  they  may  be  called  to  discharge;  you  will  send 
them  forth  into  society,  to  exert  a  happy  influence  on  all 
around  them. 

Is  not  this  charity  twice  blessed? 
It  blesseth  him  that  gives,  and  him  that  takes, 
Itdroppeth  as  the  gentle  rain  from  heaven, 
Upon  the  place  beneath. 

It  rises  as  a  fragrant  incense,  breathing  joy  into  the  hearts  of 
those  above. 

This  blessing,  this  joy,  members  of  Council,  Commission- 
ers and  Benefactors  of  the  Charleston  Orphan  House,  have 
been  yours.    Thirteen  hundred  and  fifty-five  children,  wuiJa-^^VI 


17 

^^CS'^/fJ^'^^Woyided  for  by  your  bountiful  exertions.  One  hundred 
and  fifteen  children  are  here  to-day,  like  wild  flowers  gather- 
ed from  the  desert  and  transplanted  into  garden  soil,  to  fill 
your  souls  with  admiration  and  dehght.  Altogpther,  fourteen 
hundred  and  seventy  captives  redeemed  from  the  hard  bond- 
age of  misfortune,  and  restored  to  their  home,  their  country, 
and  to  happiness.  Liberality  worthy  this  city  of  the  south, 
and  brightest  gem  in  Carolina's  crown  of  glory! 

In  addition  to  the  ordinary  means  for  the  temporal  and 
spiritual  comfort  of  these  your  children,  an  infant  and  sab- 
bath school  has  been  estabhshed,  where  thty  might  receive 
still  further  instruction, — a  commissioners'  fund  has  been 
formed,  which  is  expended  in  assisting  those  who  have  left 
the  institution,  and  whose  good  conduct  gives  them  claim  to 
such  relief;  the  City  Council,  with  that  public  spirited  liber- 
ality which  is  the  true  public  economy,  have  made  provision 
for  the  preparatory  education  of  a  hmited  number  of  boys 
who  may  be  selected  by  the  commissioners  as  worthy  of  a 
college  course, — two  boys  are  supported  by  the  Legislature 
of  the  State  at  its  own  institution, — while  another  is  pursuing 
his  preparatory  studies  for  professional  life  by  the  munificent 
provision  of  an  individual,  who  was  actuated  to  this  deed  of 
charity  by  that  spirit  which  was  imparted  to  him  while  a 
member  of  this  same  institution.  There  is  also  a  funded  be- 
quest, the  interest  of  which  is  for  the  education  of  a  boy  of 
suitable  talents  and  disposition,  for  the  ministry  of  the  Gos- 
pel, in  any  Christian  community  he  may  prefer. 

Nor  have  you,  respected  friends,  labored  in  vain,  and  spent 
your  strength  for  nought.  While  there  have  been  instances 
of  melancholy  disappointment,  to  call  forth  your  sorrowing 
regrets — and  these,  as  in  all  similar  cases,  have  stood  forth  in 
prominence  by  the  very  publicity  of  their  scandal — have  not 
the  great  proportion  of  your  beneficiaries  spent  useful  and 
industrious  lives,  amid  the  quiet  and  unobtrusive  virtues  of 
domestic  life?  Are  not  three  of  them  filling  high  and  impor- 
tant stations  in  the  navy  of  their  country,  and  may  you  not 
with  parental  honor  claim  your  sons  among  the  honored  and 
useful  members  of  the  pulpit  and  the  bar? 

We  rejoice  when  some  vessel  which  has  been  buffetted  by 


18 

the  rough  tempest,  and  of  whose  safety  we  were  solicittouSi  ^  V  >  ^ 
having  ridden  out  the  storm,  is  seen  entering  the  harbor  with 
her  colors  streaming  in  the  wind — and  shall  we  not  much 
more  rejoice  when  we  behold  these  goodly  spirits  saved  from 
that  storm  in  which  they  must  needs  have  wrecked,  and  safe- 
ly harbored  in  this  port  of  peace? 

We  all  laud,  and  justly,  the  man  who  by  his  skill  or  efforts 
contributes  to  the  comfort  and  pleasure  of  society — and  what 
praises  are  due  to  those  who  deliver  it  from  the  sources  of 
moral  pestilence  and  death,  and  by  the  same  means  replenish 
it  with  worthy  and  viituous  citizens'? 

The  man  who  by  his  wealth  has  founded  some  institution, 
or  erected  some  noble  building  to  adorn  his  city  or  country, 
deserves,  as  he  receives,  the  gratitude  of  posterity;  but  how 
much  more  available  to  the  beauty  and  exaltation  of  society 
is  that  expenditure,  which  fills  it  with  noble  spirits,  elevated 
natures,  and  souls  garnished  with  all  the  hneaments  of  virtue? 
Such  reward,  friends  and  benefactors  of  this  asylum,  such 
reward  is  yours. 

"Think  not  the  good, 
The  gentle  deeds  of  mercy  you  have  done, 
Shall  die  forgotten  all;  the  poor,  the  wretched, 
The  fatherless,  the  friendless,  and  the  widow, 
Who  daily  own  the  bounty  of  your  hands, 
Shall  cry  to  heaven,  and  pull  a  blessing  on  you." 

In  the  bright  visions  of  the  future  glories  of  this  my  adopt- 
ed country,  I  see  the  alumni  of  this  institution  enrolled  among 
her  brightest  sons,  and  most  useful  and  devoted  daughters — 
filling  with  noble  and  high-minded  citizens,  the  marts  of  com- 
merce, the  plantations  of  agriculture,  the  ranks  of  war,  and 
the  seats  of  legislative  wisdom.  Is  this  all  a  vision  of  the 
fancy?  Or  is  it  ever  to  be  reahzed?  This  depends  on  the 
continued  and  increased  efforts  for  the  preservation  and  im- 
provement of  their  asylum,  of  you,  Honorable  Members  of 
Council,  of  you,  especially,  respected  Commissioners,  on  you, 
still  more  immediately,  though  not  more  truly,  officers  and 
instructors,  and  above  all,  upon  you,  the  children  for  whom 
all  these  efforts  are  put  forth. 

I  have  had  other  and  fitter  opportunities  for  pressing  upon 


19 

you,  my  dear  children,  your  duty  to  your  Saviour  and  your 
God.  Let  me  take  this  occasion,  with  all  the  interest  which 
its  publicity  affords,  to  infix  within  your  minds  this  one  en- 
couraging truth,  that  to  you  the  successful  pursuit  of  the  ad- 
vantages of  social  life,  is  as  open,  as  free,  and  as  hopeful,  as 
perhaps  to  any  other  class  of  youth.  The  prospect  of  enter- 
ing upon  the  possession  of  wealth,  without  personal  exertion, 
too  generally  enervates  the  character  and  deprives  it  forever 
of  that  power  of  self-government,  and  that  spirit  of  confi- 
dence which  will  undertake  and  accomplish  whatever  is  at- 
tainable. It  is  in  the  school  of  adversity,  it  is  under  the 
teaching  of  stern  necessity,  it  is  when  there  is  no  other 
prompter  to  genius  than  its  own  innate  aspirations,  that  these 
inestimable  qualities,  which  the  wealth  of  CrcEsus  could  not 
purchase,  are  secured.  It  is  good,  my  dear  children,  to  bear 
the  yoke  in  your  youth.  So  says  scripture.  So  speaks  ex- 
perience. There  is,  believe  me,  no  hopelessness  around  your 
future.  You  need  not  look  forward  as  to  darkness  and  de- 
spair. On  the  contrary,  there  is  every  thing  to  breed  within 
you  high  purposes  of  future  eminence.  If,  children,  you  will 
only  now,  in  the  days  of  your  youth,  seek  God,  hear  the  voice 
of  instruction,  improve  all  the  advantages  you  enjoy,  and 
cherish  a  spirit  of  strict  rectitude,  what  is  there  you  may  not 
in  future  fife  attain?  Honest,  upright,  industrious,  humble, 
unassuming  and  Christian  in  your  deportment,  who  wdll  not 
rejoice  to  take  you  by  the  hand  and  help  you  up  the  steep  as- 
cent to  competence,  to  wealth,  to  honor,  and  to  glory? 

Do  you  wish  to  become  respectable  in  the  mechanic  arts 
of  life?  Almost  all  who  are  or  have  been  so,  have  pressed 
their  way  through  the  extremest  difficulties,  have  begun  on 
nothing  and  lived  on  Uttle,  until  they  have  secured  to  them- 
selves competence  and  ease.  Or  do  you  pant  after  the  fame 
of  those  who  have  fought  their  country's  battles,  and  braved 
for  her  danger  and  death?  We  might  point  you  in  addition 
to  others  to  be  mentioned,  to  Henry  Knox  and  Philip  Schuy- 
ler, both  eminent  among  our  revolutionary  patriots.  Do  you 
cherish  the  holy  purpose  of  being  consecrated  to  the  ministry 
of  heaven?  Have  not  some  of  its  brightest  and  most  burn- 
ing lights,  trimmed  their  lamps  in  youthful  obscurity,  receiv- 


20 

ed  their  education  at  the  hand  of  charity,  or  soared  aloft  on 
their  own  unaided  wing  to  the  greatest  height  of  usefulness 
and  labor?  I  might  instance  Jeremy  Taylor,  the  Milton  of 
the  English  Church,  and  in  Morrison  and  Carey,  the  mo- 
dern apostles  of  China  and  of  India/  Do  you  aspire  to  emi- 
nence in  the  noble  science  of  law?  Sir  Edward  Coke,  the 
author  of  "the  Institutes  of  the  laws  of  England,"  and  one 
of  the  most  eminent  of  her  lawyers,  was  still  young  when  he 
was  left  to  be  his  own  master.  And  Blackstone,  author  of 
the  Commentaries  on  the  laws  of  England,  and  the  founder 
of  their  science,  was  early  in  life  deprived  of  both  his  pa- 
rents- This  loss,  says  his  biographer,  "proved  in  its  conse- 
quences, the  reverse  of  misfortune  to  our  author:  to  that 
circumstance  probably  he  was  indebted  for  his  future  ad- 
vancement, and  that  high  literary  character  and  reputation 
in  his  profession  which  he  has  left  behind  him;  to  that  cir- 
cumstance the  pubhc,  too,  is  probably  indebted  for  the  benefit 
it  has  received  and  will  receive  as  long  as  the  law  of  Eng- 
land remains,  from  the  labors  of  his  pen."!  Do  you  desire 
to  enrol  your  name  upon  the  list  of  philosophers  and  other 
scientific  and  hterary  worthies,  who  shine  so  resplendently 
in  the  intellectual  heavens?  The  father  of  Adam  Smith  died 
some  months  before  his  birth,  while  his  own  constitution  dur- 
ing infancy  was  weak  and  sickly. ><  Our  own  Washington  Ir- 
ving was  left  fatherless  to  pursue  mis  own  fame  and  fortune 
when  very  young.  And  above  all,  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  the 
prince  of  philosophers,  was  in  his  nnfancy  without  a  father, 
was  so  weakly  as  to  have  his  life  despaired  of,  and  was  sent 
at  an  early  age  to  a  distant  school.;^  The  celebrated  German 
metaphysical  philosopher  Kant,  was  the  son  of  a  harness 
maker,  and  early  lost  both  his  parents. 

Do  you  emulate  the  glory  of  a  patriot  and  statesman?  The 
father  of  George  Canning  died  the  year  after  his  birth,  and 
left  his  family  after  having  been  long  oppressed  by  the  hard 
hand  of  vexatious  need,  unprovided  and  wholly   destitute-! 

*  Chrysostom,  ihe  most  celebrated  of  the  Fathers,  was  deprived  of  his  father 
in  infancy. 

t  Blackstone,  vol.  I,  p.  5. 

t  See  Speeches  of  George  Canning,  Vol.  I,  p.  7. 


21 

Henry  Clay  was  in  like  manner  early  deprived  of  his  father, 
and  owes  all  his  education  to  a  common  school.  William 
Wirt,  the  late  Attorney  General,  lost  both  his  parents  young. 
The  father  of  John  Hancock  deceased  during  his  infancy,  and 
he  was  cast  on  the  kindness  of  a  relative.  Alexander  Ham- 
ilton, whose  life  is  so  interwoven  with  the  history  of  the  Amer- 
ican Revolution,  and  with  the  formation  and  adoption  of  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  was  deprived  of  his  mother 
when  a  child,  while  his  father  lived  in  pecuniary  dependence. 
Andrew  Jackson's  father  died  immediately  after  his  birth,  and 
his  mother  while  he  was  yet  young.  And  Washington,  the 
father  of  his  country,  was  also  made  to  feel  in  his  early  youth 
the  want  of  a  father's  care. 

If  then,  children,  any  of  you  fail  to  arrive  at  competence, 
honor,  or  eminence  in  future  hfe,  it  will  be,  not  because  you 
are  orphans,  but  because  you  have  failed  to  embrace  fully  the 
privileges  you  now  enjoy,  or  to  cultivate  the  habits  and  virtues 
to  which  you  are  now  so  constantly  urged. 

And  now,  children,  under  the  encouraging  influence  of  this 
truth,  you  will  retire  from  this  scene  to  the  festivities  of  this 
hallowed  day.  Yield  your  hearts  to  the  pleasures  of  the  oc- 
casion, and  with  your  joyous  acclamations  let  your  bosoms 
swell  with  gratitude  to  Him  who  has  provided  for  you  a  home 
and  a  parent's  kindness  in  the  hearts  of  Christians;  and  when 
you  retire  this  evening  to  your  couch,  pray  to  your  Father  in 
heaven  that  he  may  make  you  partakers  of  his  heavenly  spirit, 
adopt  you  into  his  heavenly  family,  and  evermore  bless  and 
befriend  you. 

And  now,  fellow  citizens,  need  I  say  more  to  encourage 
and  stimulate  you  to  continued  and  increased  liberality  to- 
wards this  most  useful  and  laudable  institution?  The  first  step 
towards  reaction  and  failure  in  any  design  is  the  supposition 
that  we  have  already  attained.  When  this  takes  possession 
of  the  mind,  it  relaxes  its  energy  and  checks  its  further  efforts. 
Think  not  then,  you  have  completed  your  institution,  but  for- 
getting what  has  been  already  accomplished,  press  forward 
towards  the  mark  of  ultimate  and  entire  perfection. 

What  has  been  done  towards  the  estabhshment  of  a  hbra- 
ry  worthy  the  Institution?     Has  it  a  philosophic  and  other 


22 

suitable  apparatus?  Are  its  schools  well  supplied  with  all  that 
is  necessary  to  advance  their  objects?  Is  it  possible  or  desi- 
rable to  provide  for  the  specific  education  of  the  children  in 
the  different  branches  of  art  and  business?  Could  their  labors 
in  the  acquisition  of  such  an  education  be  made  available  to 
their  own  support  and  the  enlargement  of  the  plans  of  the  In- 
stitution? This  question  I  can  suggest  with  more  confidence, 
as  ]  find  it  was  urged  upon  your  attention  by  our  late  Hon. 
Mayor.*  Could  any  further  means  be  employed  for  awaken- 
ing and  fostering  talent?  Could  instruction  be  imparted  to 
the  children  in  that,  oftentimes  most  useful,  and  at  all  times 
most  delightful  and  elevating,  art  of  music?  In  an  institution 
in  Germany,  out  of  two  hundred  orphans,  all  except  two  had 
acquired  this  knowledge.  Would  not  a  committee  of  corres- 
pondence with  other  similar  institutions  in  this  and  other  coun- 
tries, and  by  which  their  comparative  advantages  might  be 
known,  probably  lead  to  many  valuable  suggestions?  Were 
the  fund  of  the  commissioners  sufficiently  increased,  might  it 
not  be  found  of  incalculable  importance  in  assisting,  in  their 
entrance  upon  the  business  or  duties  of  life,  those  who  have 
left  the  Institution,  but  who  are  still  friendless  and  pennyless? 

What  immeasurable  good  might  in  this  way  be  accomphsh- 
ed!  How  great  is  the  opportunity  still  afforded  of  improving 
and  advancing  the  interests  of  this  asylum!  How  boundless 
the  sphere  for  talent  and  benevolence! 

And  shall  these  not  be  forthcoming?  Having  done  so  well, 
will  you  not  still  more  abound  in  this  labor  of  love?  When 
the  Empress  Catharine  founded  the  hospital  for  foundlings  at 
Moscow,  a  person  unknown  sent  a  box  containing  fifty  thou- 
sand rubles,  accompanied  with  these  words:  "He  who  takes 
the libeity  to  offer  this,  will  have  completely  obtained  his  de- 
sire, if,  by  means  of  this  gift,  Russia  shall  at  some  future  day, 
have  one  more  reasonable  subject,  one  happy  man,  one  virtu- 
ous citizen."  Let  your  liberality  this  day,  let  your  future 
beneficence  while  you  live  and  when  you  come  to  die,  attest 
to  heaven  and  earth  your  just  sense  of  the  value  and  impor- 
tance of  this  noble  and  productive  charity. 


*Report  to  the  City  Council  by  Hon.  R.  Y.  Hayric 


And  what  a  field,  my  christian  friends,  is  opened  to  your 
labors  in  the  Sabbath  School  connected  with  the  Institution? 
Is  it  true?  Can  it  be,  that  from  so  many  churches,  there  are 
not  enough  of  interested,  zealous,  devoted  followers  of  the 
Son  of  God,  to  hear  the  cry  of  the  orphan,  whose  spiritual 
destitutions  are  as  great  as  their  physical  and  intellectual  ne- 
cessities, and  to  impart  to  them  that  knowledge  in  which 
standeth  eternal  life? 

Methinks  it  is  enough,  after  what  you  have  heard,  to  sug- 
gest these  things  to  your  minds,  in  order  to  enkindle  there  a 
readiness  to  do  all,  and  more  than  all  that  is  desired.  The 
sight  of  these  "poor  orphans,  whose  minds  were  left  as  un- 
clothed and  naked  altogether  as  their  bodies,  and  who  were 
exposed  to  all  the  temptations  of  ignorance,  want,  and  idle- 
ness,"" of  whom  you  are  the  common  guardians,  will  appeal  to 
your  sympathies  and  call  forth  charity,  more  powerfully  than 
any  pleas  of  mine. 

Were  there,  however,  one  individual  present  whose 
heart  was  untouched  by  their  misery,  or  unaffected  by  their 
tale  of  silent  suffering,  to  such  an  on^  would  I  say:  Hadst 
thou  a  mother?  Hast  thou  ever  felt  the  kind  warmth  of  a 
mother's  bosom? — the  sweetness  of  a  mother's  kisses? — the 
tenderness  of  a  mother's  embrace? — and  the  unchanging  de- 
votedness  of  a  mother's  love?  In  sickness  did  she  comfort 
you?  In  health  did  she  delight  in  you? — weeping  with  you 
when  you  wept,  and  rejoicing  with  you  when  you  rejoiced? 
Did  she  live  in  your  life,  prosper  in  your  prosperity,  and  feel 
every  joy  doubled  by  participation  with  yourself?  Has  she 
become  to  you,  as  it  were,  an  abiding  presence? — a  minister- 
ing angel? — a  heaven  of  the  sweetest  and  purest  recollections? 
a  pole-star  to  guide  your  weary  way  through  life's  toilsome 
journey?  And  is  the  sanctuary  above  made  more  dear  be- 
cause it  is  the  dwelHng  place  of  that  now  sainted  mother? 
These  children  never  knew  (or  knowing  ceased  to  know) 
what  it  is  thus  to  enjoy  and  bless  their  mother.  Like  the  or- 
phan in  the  Greek  tragedy,  they  may  say — 

for  the  time  when  in  a  mother's  arms, 
I  in  her  fondness  should  have  known  some  joy 


24 


Of  life — from  that  sweet  care  was  I  estranged, 
A  mother's  nurture.* 


Hadst  thou  a  father? — whose  name  and  image  you  saw  en- 
stamped  upon  yourself,  who  looked  upon  you  with  pride,  who 
felt  in  yours  his  own  existence  prolonged  and  his  own  charac- 
ter perpetuated,who  gloried  in  struggling  with  the  hard  adver- 
sities of  hfe  that  he  might  clothe  and  feed  and  nourish  you,  who 
called  you  his  own  son,  his  hope  and  promise,  who  inculcated 
the  spirit  of  manliness  and  truth  and  godliness,  and  brought 
you  up  to  usefulness  and  honor?  And  did  you  love  that  fa- 
ther? Did  you  reverence  him  in  your  infant  days  even  as 
God?  Did  you  obey  him  as  an  unerring  guide?  And  do  you 
now  look  back  upon  him  with  high  and  holy  thankfulness  to 
God  who  gave  you  such  a  father?  These  children  can  never 
know  a  father's  care. 

No  more  they  smile  upon  their  Sire!  no  friend 
To  help  them  now!  no  father  to  defend. 
The  day  that  to  the  grave  the  father  sends 
Robs  the  sad  orphan  of  his  father's  friends.t 

They  are  left  alone^to  pilot  their  boisterous  wa5t-over  the 
stormy  sea  of  lif^^mder  an  angry  sky— in  a  night  of  darkness^ 
with  blackening  tempest  all  ahead. 

Like  your  blessed  Saviour,  rebuke  that  selfishness  which 
would  forbid  these  children  to  come  even  to  your  heart  and 
awake  your  kindliest  interest.  Take  them  up  in  your  arms  and 
bless  them.  Let  this  mind  be  in  you  which  was  also  in  Christ 
Jesus.  And  if  there  be  any  consolation  in  Christ,  if  any  com- 
fort of  love,  if  any  fellowship  of  the  spirit,  if  any  bowels  and 
mercies,  fulfil  ye  this  work  of  heavenly  charity  to  which  by 
the  providence  of  God  you  are  so  sweetly  summoned. 

*The  Ion  of  Euripides,  line  1427-1430.     See  vol.  I,  Transl.,  by  Potter. 
tHomer  Iliad,  B.  22. 


ADDRESS, 

BY  THOMAS  NEIL,  AN  ORPHAN  BOY. 

COMPOSED  BY  DR.  JOHN  B.  IRVING. 

"Pure  Religion,  and  undefiled  before  God  and  the  Father  is  this:  To 
visit  the  Fatherless  in  their  affliction." 

The  melody  of  the  tuneful  choir,  the  prayer  of  the  ordamed 
Mmister  of  God,  have  already  ascended  to  the  throne  of  Grace! 

Shall  I  essay,  poor  little  orphan  as  I  am,  to  add  the  feeble 
tribute  of  my  appeal  to  Him,  "from  whom  alone  proceeds 
every  good  and  perfect  gift,*'  to  incline  your  hearts  yet  more, 
my  christian  friends,  towards  the  righteous  Charity,  associ- 
ated with  this  most  interesting  occasion? 

The  Orphan's  story  is  soon  told.  Affliction  meets  him  in 
the  cradle!  Sorrow  marks  him  for  her  own!  and  the  history 
of  one  of  these  httle  creatures  of  your  compassion,  is  the  his- 
tory of  us  all. 

I  know  not  whether  I  can  relate  my  own  afflictions,  but  a 
dark  dream  has  sometimes  swept  across  my  brain;  a  wild — a 
dismal  dream  that  will  not  break! 

I  was  an  infant  almost  when  my  Father  died;  but  I  remem- 
ber, ere  his  eyes  took  an  unearthly  lustre  and  did  fade,  he 
folded  me  in  his  arms,  and  pressing  his  pallid  lips  upon  my 
cheek,  told  me  he  had  nothing  to  bequeath  his  poor  boy,  but  a 
father's  blessing,  and  a  father's  kiss!  These  were  his  last,  his 
only  legacy! 

My  Mother,  borne  down  by  sorrow,  misery,  and  want,  like 
Hagar  with  her  child,  going  forth  into  the  wilderness,  took  me 
into  the  wilderness  of  the  world.  But  alas!  she  led  me  not 
long.  In  a  short  time  she  laid,  also,  in  the  stillness  of  ever- 
lasting repose!  Her  hands  were  stretched  in  motionless  and 
marble  coldness  by  her  side.  Yet  her  face  was  so  serene, 
life's  soft  warmth  still  seemed  to  hnger  on  her  lips!  I  kissed 
her!  'Twas  the  first  time  she  returned  not  my  caress!  I 
spoke  to  her,  she  replied  not — yet  she  was  so  like  my  mother 
still,  I  could  not  think  that  she  was  dead,  until  they  bore  her 
away,  and  I  stood  by  the  side  of  her  closing  grave!  I  thought 
my  httle  heart  would  break  as  I  turned  from  that  teirible  spot! 


26 

The  earth  to  me  was  like  one  vast  and  dismal  cemetry !  It 
had  closed  over  all  that  had  fondly  loved  me,  and  I  was  house- 
less, unfriended,  and  alone — like  the  young  twig,  that  had 
scattered  its  last  leaf  to  the  merciless  wind,  left  to  endure  the 
wintry  storm  without  the  shelter  of  the  Parent  Stem  ! 

To  the  blackest  night,  however,  the  brightest  morn  may 
succeed  !  'As  the  sun  may  carry  pestilence  in  his  beams,  the 
night  may  scatter  healing  from  its  sable  wings  ! 

Seldom  does  misfortunes  visit  the  world,  abstracted  from  eve" 
ry  quality  of  good  !  When  all  is  most  dark  and  threatening 
around,  the  Father  of  the  fatherless,  the  God  of  all  comfort,  in 
order  to  bring  them  closer  to  himself,  graciously  permits  the 
weak  and  perishing  creatures  of  his  power  to  experience  his 
goodness — to  see  some  Star  shining  in  the  darkness,  to  cheer 
their  drooping  spirits — to  hear  some  kind  voice  telling  of  a 
home,  where  the  wretched  may  fly  for  comfort,  and  the  weary 
for  repose  ! 

Here,  with  choking  utterance,  I  turn  to  you,  my  generous 
benefactors,  and  ask,  but  for  your  timely  sympathy  and  sup- 
port, where  should  I  have  been  now — where  my  little  innocent 
associates  !  Alas  !  you  may  as  well  ask,  where  the  scattered 
leaves  of  Autumn  lie  ;  the  yellow  leaves,  that  for  a  moment 
flutter  in  the  wind,  and  then  settle  down  amongst  their  with- 
ered companions  on  the  cold,  cold  ground ;  the  last  sad  refuge 
■•'  of  the  fallen,  the  faded,  and  forlorn  !"  Ah  !  well  may  it  be 
asked,  where  should  we  have  been  now\  but  for  this  blessed  in- 
stitution !  In  some  hovel  of  poverty  and  crime,  perhaps,  ut- 
tering blasphemy  and  lies  instead  of  the  Morning  and  Even- 
ing prayer  you  have  taught  us  to  pronounce  !  Oh  !  it  is  awful 
to  think,  into  what  aa  abyss  of  misery,  here  and  hereafter,  we 
might  have  been  plunged,  unless,  like  the  wearied  dove,  we 
had  found  from  the  destroying  deluge  of  sin,  a  shelter  in  this 
holy  ark ! 

I  am  told  the  age  in  which  we  live,  is  one  of  unexampled  be. 
nevolenee — that  Angels  have  assumed  the  forms  of  humanity — 
that  the  Sick  are  visited  in  their  affliction — the  Poor  have  the 
gospel  preached  to  them  !  We  can  bear  blessed  testimony,  I 
am  sure,  that  God  has  put  it  especially  into  the  hearts  of  the 
humane,  to  provide  for  the  destitute  and  fatherless  ! 


23 

What  is  it  that  prompts  you  to  bestow  a  thought  upon  the 
Orphan  ?  What  is  it  that  makes  the  heart  meU  with  tender- 
ness at  the  cry  of  the  poor  and  the  needy  1  What  is  it  that 
gives  to  pity,  its  sweetest  tear— to  love,  its  most  dehcious  smile 
— to  feeling,  its  most  generous  impulse?  What  it  it  that  pleads 
for  all  these  little  ones  so  strongly  in  the  bosom  of  the  virtuous? 
It  is  thy  voice,  O  Nature  !  Queen  of  a  sunny  sky,  waking  up 
the  affections  in  the  coldest  bosom,  until  they  bloom  and  blos- 
som as  the  Rose ! 

I  feel,  we  can  look  to  you,  generous  friends,  with  confidence, 
for  the  means  of  a  temporal  education,  and  for  an  eternal  hope. 

In  the  temple  where  we  worship,  it  is  written  "  Suffer  little 
children  to  come  unto  me,  and  forbid  them  not,  for  of  such  is 
the  kingdom  of  Heaven."  It  is  the  mandate  of  Jehovah. 
Who  shall  gainsay  it  1  And  oh  !  what  a  harvest  of  merit  and 
of  consolation,  is  thus  given  you  to  gather  !  Without  your 
mediation,  it  is  easy  for  our  heavenly  parent  to  provide  for 
those  whom  he  has  promised  "  to  preserve  alive,"  but  he  has 
chosen  rather  to  associate  you  with  Himself,  in  the  beauty  of 
his  own  hohness  ;  putting  you  as  Clouds  in  the  midst,  to  pour 
down  on  others,  parched  by  the  burning  drought  of  the  world, 
the  dews  and  fertilizing  rains  you  may  receive  from  Him. 

Every  encouragement  is  afforded  you  to  continue  your  alms 
and  your  prayers  in  our  behalf  Already  has  the  Almighty 
blessed  our  Institution,  by  sending  forth  into  the  world  from 
among  our  humble  band,  characters  conspicuous  for  their  tal- 
ents and  their  worth,  and  who  knows  what  future  Statesmen 
may  exist  even  now  within  our  walls,  to  be  formed  or  lost 
according  to  the  increase  or  want  of  your  generosity!  Let  us 
hope  that  many  signal  distinctions  are  in  store  for  us,  and  is  it 
expecting  too  much,  that  the  instruments  of  good  to  society 
will  not  be  confined  to  one  sex  alone,  but  that  even  from  among 
the  more  helpless  objects  of  your  bounty,  there  may,  also,  go 
forth  with  the  blessing  of  God,  many  a  modest  Rebecca — 
many  a  devout  Hannah — many  an  humble  and  pious  Mary — 
many  an  affectionate  Rachel,  that  beloved  and  loving  wife, 
that  beautiful  mother  of  Israel ! 

Love,  then,  these  httle  Orphans  for  your  own  sake.  Re- 
gard them  as  your  brethren.     Cherish  them  as  your  offspring. 


28 

Consinder  them,  as  our  blessed  Saviour  himself  did,  in  order 
that  when  he  shall  appear  again  in  his  glory,  and  all  the  An- 
gels of  Heaven  with  him,  he  may  say  unto  you  on  the  great 
day : 

"Come,  ye  blessed  of  my  Father,  inherit  the  Kingdom  pre- 
pared for  you  from  the  foundation  of  the  world.  For  I  was 
an  hungered,  and  ye  gave  me  meat :  1  was  thirsty,  and  ye 
ga^ve  me  drink  :  naked  and  ye  clothed  me  !" 

You  will  wondering  say,  "  Lord,  when  saw  we  tliee  an  hun- 
gered, and  fed  thee  ;  or  thirsty  and  gave  thee  drink  ;  naked 
and  clothed  thee .?" 

But  the  King  upon  the  throne  of  his  glory,  will  answer  and 
say,  "  Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you,  inasmuch  as  ye  have 
done  it  unto  the  least  of  these  my  little  ones,  you  have  done  it 
unto  Me  /" 


O  R  P  H  A  iN  '  S    HYMN. 

BY  MRS.   C.  GILMAN. 

Oh  !  Thou,  who  hear'st  our  orphan  sighs, 
When  lowly  at  thy  throne  we  bend, 

Let  this  our  happier  hymn  arise, 
And  to  thy  mercy  seat  ascend. 

Our  infant  hours  began  in  gloom. 
No  ray  of  worldly  joy  was  near; 

Cold  want  destroyed  our  early  bloom, 
Pale  sorrow  called  our  early  tear. 

But,  Charity,  thy  genial  light 

Burst  thro'  the  shade  and  cheered  our  way, 
And  kindlier  still,  revealed  to  sight 

The  glories  of  the  Gospel  day. 

Great  God,  for  those  whose  fostering  love 
Has  gently  nurtured  our  5'oung  powers, 

We  pray,  that  blessings  from  above 
May  lightly  wing  their  earthly  hours. 

And  when  the  solemn  day  draws  near, 
That  calls  our  rescued  souls  to  thee. 

Together  may  we  all  appear, 
And  iningle  in  eternity. 


